Barnett Shale

Quicksilver boosts Lake Arlington stake

On Tuesday, Fort Worth-based Quicksilver announced it is boosting its stake in a prized Lake Arlington property from 75 to 100 percent. Quicksilver bought the remaining 25 percent working interest from Marshall R. Young Oil Co. of Fort Worth for $62 million in cash and more than 3.6 million units in BreitBurn Energy Partners, bringing the deal's total value to roughly $120 million. Quicksilver thus reduced its interest in BreitBurn to about 33 percent. Quicksilver previously reached a settlement with BreitBurn, a Los Angeles-based master limited partnership, to end a bitter lawsuit.

You can find the complete report here.

-- Jack Z. Smith

North Arlington neighborhoods merge into group

These new Arlington groups are hard to keep up with. Meadow Parks Estates in North Arlington reports neighborhoods there have morphed into the North Arlington Neighbors group.

Its fast-changing map includes neighborhoods from I-30 on the south, to Green Oaks Boulevard on the west and north, to Cooper Street on the east. The eastern boundary zigzags north of Cooper to abut the Ditto Golf Course (pictured) on its west side and then reconnects with Green Oaks.

We blogged awhile back on lease offers the property owners have been getting from Fleet Oil and Gas and Carrizo Oil and Gas. North Arlington Neighbors now reports that XTO Energy is offering to sign leases at $9,500 per acre, 25 percent royalty, three-year primary term, and a two-year optional term at $9,500 per acre in the Northeast section of the North Arlington Neighbors map.

North Arlington Neighbors reports it includes the Rolling Hills Estates, Meadow Park Estates, Timbercreek, River Legacy Estates, Forrest Creek, and Parkway North neighborhoods. Click here to visit the group's web site, see what neighborhoods they aim to include, and how you can sign a memorandum of intent to be represented by the group.

-- Scott Nishimura

Catching up to Arlington's Extended Oaks: $17k

Thanks to the readers who alerted us to the gas lease deal that Northwest Arlington's Extended Oaks neighborhoods have struck with Axia Land Services, which is offering leases in the area on behalf of Chesapeake Energy. The terms: $17,000-per-acre, 25 percent net royalty, and three-year term. The neighborhood gas committee has been fielding questions from homeowners who wonder whether this is the best deal they can get. (Click here to view the Extended Oaks map and see a copy of the lease).

"Could better offers appear in the future? Yes," the committee says on its web site. But the committee feels it's negotiated its best deal, and "no further negotiations are planned."

Extended Oaks' target area is Randol Mill/Westwood on the north, Fielder Road on the east, Division on the south, and Crowley Road on the west. Click here to read our previous posts on the Extended Oaks.

-- Scott Nishimura

Extended Oaks (NW Arl) group duels itself, Chesapeake

Northwest Arlington's Extended Oaks group has been fighting divisions within itself and, it says, a landman and Chesapeake Energy.

Now it has a new and improved lease offer to deal with: $15,000 per-acre signing bonus, 25 percent royalty, three-year term, and two-year option at $15,000 per acre.

"I'm still holding off in the sense that the group has to decide from a leadership point of view," says Jerry Pikulinski, one of the group's organizers.

That may be a challenge. Pikulinski acknowledges difficulty in keeping his group together and says one member has been trying to negotiate with Chesapeake's land agent, Axia Land Services, on the sly. "I'm going to have to deal with defectors in my group who are working against the negotiating process," Pikulinski said.

Extended Oaks, which says it represents about 700 property owners in the area west of Randol Mill Road/Westwood, west of Fielder Road, north of Division Street, and east of Crowley Road, has been trying to encourage competition for leases but hasn't found any.

It's been dueling Axia, which Pikulinski says has been trying to "bust" the neighborhood alliance. He points out that Axia's landman, Mark Gordon, bumped up the company's offer to the $15,000 from $12,500 at a recent neighborhood meeting, but that Axia hasn't put anything in writing. Axia also is telling the neighborhood that the offer would include what's in the Extended Oaks boundaries, Pikulinski says, but he says that also is not in writing. Initially, Axia wanted to exclude the area between Oakwood and Fielder, Pikulinski said.

"We don't have anything in the way of an agreement or an understanding," Pikulinski said. "They're not negotiating with us."

Axia and Chesapeake say the neighborhood group has been so intent on encouraging a competitor to come in that it hasn't invited Axia and Chesapeake in to talk. Jerri Robbins, Chesapeake's public affairs manager for the Barnett Shale, says the company would be receptive.

"That's what we're there for," she said.

In the meantime, Robbins issued a defense of Gordon, the landman who has been under attack by leaders of the alliance. Click here to visit the Extended Oaks web site.

"I'm aware of Mark Gordon. Mark Gordon is a good guy. Every interaction I've had with him has been positive," said Robbins, pointing out that Gordon has been receiving good feedback from Extended Oaks homeowners. Gordon referred questions to Chesapeake.

Of Axia's offer, Robbins said, "that's a good offer. Nothing wrong with $15,000 an acre."

She also pointed out that property owners are under no obligation to sign any lease offer. "Property owners have the right to sign when and where they want, or they don't have to sign at all," she said.

Robbins said she'd have to research who is covered under the Axia lease offer. More on that later.

The Extended Oaks association is having a meeting 7 p.m. March 4 at the Arlington Chinese Church, 805 Oakwood Lane, to discuss its next moves.

-- Scott Nishimura

Having a meeting on the Barnett Shale? Publicize it here on our Community Calendar!

(Photo: Randol Mill Park)

Oaks (NW Arlington) group organizes

A group is forming around The Oaks neighborhood in northwest Arlington to respond to offers that homeowners received in December from Western Production Company, which is offering to sign leases for Chesapeake Energy.

The group is calling itself Extended Oaks, an area bounded by Randol Mill/Westwood on the north, Crowley on the west, Fielder Road on the east, and Division on the south. The group also is interested in organizing with homeowners in the Woodbine area north of Westwood, which received lease offers earlier in the year on behalf of Chesapeake.

Western is offering to sign leases for a signing bonus of $5,000 per acre and 25 percent royalty. "The consensus here is that we can do a lot better," said Jerry Pikulinski, a retired Bureau of Labor Statistics economist, sometime-political candidate in Arlington, and one of the neighborhood organizers.

The group heard from a Western landman in December. "He left us with the impression that unless we had a large block and a competitive situation, what we were presented with was what we were going to get," Pikulinski said.

He also said the landman told the group "Chesapeake has locked in all the available drill sites and there aren't any more available that we could look for."

Pikulinski said the Western offers are the first that homeowners in The Oaks neighborhood have received. Residents of nearby Interlochen, Millbrook, and Waterway Park saw a spate of offers last year, and some in that area received a fresh round during the holidays.

The Extended Oaks group has scheduled a community meeting, 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Jan. 22 at Pope Elementary School, 901 Chestnut Drive. The topic: "Froms and Clauses in a Gas Lease. What Residents Need to Know."

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photos: Christmas carolers from Pope Elementary, in the Pope science lab)

Having a meeting? Publicize it here, in our new Barnett Shale Community Calendar!

Northwest Arlington neighborhood organizes

A group of Northwest Arlington homeowners, in neighborhoods north of Interstate 30, west of Fielder Road, and east and south of Green Oaks Boulevard, reports it's in negotiations with Dale Resources, which is signing leases in the area for Chesapeake Energy.

Dale's original offer, in September, was $2,000-per-acre signing bonus, 22 percent royalty, five years, and 640 acres pooling, among other provisions.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photos: Lamar High School volleyball, renovating football field at Lamar)

Waterway Park in Arlington gets $6,000/acre and 25%

The Waterway Park Neighborhood Association has signed a lease with Chesapeake Energy for its nearly 45 acres of common property at terms of $6,000 per acre and a 25 percent royalty. Residents in the neighborhood in far northwest Arlington who have not signed a lease, amounting to about half the households, can also sign at those terms. The company's original offer in the spring was $5,500 and 24 percent. Additionally, a no-drill zone around the neighborhood is expanded, according to information posted by the association.

-- Jim Fuquay

Arlington's Waterway Park nears deal with Chesapeake

Waterway Park Neighborhood Association has negotiated a lease with Chesapeake Energy calling for a bonus of $6,000 per acre for common property. The association's board also is working to negotiate a drill site farther removed from the northwest Arlington neighborhood.

Homeowners in Waterway Park have their own lease offer of $5,500 per acre, which should translate to about $2,000 per lot.

-- Jim

Interlochen added

We received email over the weekend from readers in Interlochen, asking that their neighborhood be added to the "categories" list. It's done! Thank you for checking in!

-- Scott

Click here for Arlington's gas drilling ordinance.